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The Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted a study in the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) for reference years 2011 to 2019 to learn about occupational injuries and illnesses that result in days of job transfer or work restriction (DJTR). The study concluded in 2019 and BLS will incorporate biennial DJTR estimates into its SOII production cycle beginning with estimates for the 2021-2022 survey years. See the DJTR collection page for details.
The purpose of this study was to compare the case circumstances and worker characteristics of injuries and illnesses that require days away from work (DAFW) to recuperate and those that lead to days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) only, without time away from work. The SOII historically included only data on the case circumstances and worker characteristics for DAFW cases; this study expanded SOII estimates to include the same detail for DJTR cases in some industries.
DJTR cases have become more prevalent since 1992 when detailed data were first collected only for DAFW cases. In 1992, DJTR cases accounted for 21 percent of total days away from work, days of restricted work activity, or job transfer cases (DART) in private industry. By 2011, DJTR accounted for 41 percent of these cases and, in 2019, 43 percent of private industry cases. Detailed data on DJTR cases leads to a better understanding of how occupational injuries and illnesses are managed and gives a more complete accounting of the types of injuries and illnesses that occur to workers and how they occurred.
The DJTR pilot for years 2017-2019 included the following NAICS* subsectors:
* NAICS is the North American Industry Classification System.
The DJTR pilot for years 2014–2016 included the following industry subsectors:
The results of the second study were reported in BLS Report 1081: A pilot study of job-transfer or work-restriction cases, 2014–2016. (PDF) (HTML)
The DJTR pilot for years 2011–2013 included the following industry subsectors:
The results of the first study were reported in BLS Report 1056: Occupational Injuries and Illnesses: a pilot study of job-transfer or work-restriction cases, 2011–2013. (PDF)
Rather than design and conduct an entirely separate survey, BLS integrated this pilot study with the existing BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), an annual survey of more than 240,000 establishments. In the SOII, establishments are asked to provide detailed information about injuries and illnesses that led to days away from work. Establishments in the six selected private industry subsectors (as designated by North American Industry Classification System) covered in the DJTR pilots completed between 2011-2019 were asked to provide details for injuries and illnesses that led only to job transfer or restricted work. (This was in addition to the normally collected SOII information on days-away-from-work cases.) The newly collected information included details about:
Information about the complete methodology of the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) can be found in the BLS Handbook of Methods. Concepts directly related to days of job transfer or restriction cases are listed below.
Days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR). Days-of-job-transfer-or-restriction cases are those injuries and illnesses which result only in job transfer or restricted work activity without days away from work. This occurs when, as the result of a work-related injury or illness, an employer or healthcare professional recommends keeping an employee from doing the routine functions of his or her job or from working the full workday that the employee would have been scheduled to work before the injury or illness occurred. This may include the following instances:
Days away from work (DAFW). Injuries or illnesses for which employees used days away from work (beyond the day of injury or onset of illness) to recover from an occupational injury or illness. The number of days away from work is determined by the number of calendar days after the date of the injury or illness, before an employee returns to work. These cases may include days of job transfer or restricted work activity in addition to days away from work. For example, an employee suffers a work-related injury resulting in 5 days away from work and upon returning to work, the employee is unable to perform normal duties associated with the job for an additional 3 days (i.e., the employee was on restricted work activity). This case would be recorded as a days-away-from-work case with 5 days away from work and 3 days of restricted work activity. It would not be recorded as a days-of-job-transfer-or-restriction case.
Days away from work, restriction, job transfer (DART). These are an aggregation of injuries or illnesses that involved days away from work (DAFW) and those that involved days of job transfer or restricted work activity (DJTR).
The concepts above are summarized as follows:
Note: DJTR and DAFW cases are the two components of DART cases. That is, DART = DJTR + DAFW.
Last Modified Date: June 4, 2021